The Monarch at Cedar Park

I would not recommend this for your loved one. My mother was there for 1 year. They charged up levels of care without cause—all to make money. I put in numerous inquiries. No one could tell me why my mother needed additional care when an assessment was never done in the first place. My mother DID NOT decline or require any assistance during her 12 months. We were never notified of a problem-just bill increases. In May 2023, my son and I were approached by a staff member who had taken naked and exclamatory photos of a dying patient without the families permission. She proceeded to show my 15yr old son. I filed a complaint with the management. The employee in question was terminated. I moved my mother to a different facility weeks later. They are still billing me for increased charges of 6k with NO explanation.

We moved my mom to Poets Walk in mid September. Since then, there has been a drastic drop in employees. Those who are left are doing their best to keep the residents taken care of and most of them are working above and beyond. Unfortunately, the level of quality care has dropped drastically and the residents are most often found sitting in mass staring at the tv or sleeping. Very little engagement because they simply don’t have any activity coordinators on staff currently. The doors to the gardens are locked every time I go (because they “forget” to unlock them) which is incredibly frustrating because it was one of the big reasons we chose Poets Walk as my mom loves to sit outside. That should be a simple fix but it keeps happening. The saving grace of the experience my mom is having is her main care partner who just joined the staff, the staff nurse and the family/resident engagement coordinator. Unfortunately, there are 45+ residents and many times, the ratio of staff to residents is terrible. Especially on the weekends. Representatives from corporate are actively trying to “right the ship” and find employees, but for now, they do not have the ability to care adequately for the mind, body and spirits of their residents and should not be moving anyone else in until they get the situation under control. It is heartbreaking to see the residents “sleeping in their chairs” and not receiving the memory care that was promised by the sales team.

This place is awful. There is never anyone there. No activity director. Promises of LifeLoop to monitor your parents happiness hasn’t had an entry in months. Now they claim that my parent went up two levels in care for an extra $900 a month, after the nurse and doctor told me two weeks ago that my parent is doing great and hasn’t declined. They use Zego for rent payment but it’s not updated with the increased rent charges for the supposed level of care Increase that isn’t happening. So now they want late payment and back charges. FRUAD. NEGLIGENCE. The poor employees. They try their best but are completely understaffed. With absolutely no support from admin. Stay away from this place.

So far, so good. My family member has been here for 2 months and I'm pleased. Never much of a talker, he has become more engaged and interested and I think it is because the staff really talks to the residents and cares for them. I like the "all hands on deck" approach that is obvious here. One day while having lunch with my family member, I noticed the executive director feeding a resident! Nothing is beneath him and all of his staff follows his lead. January 2019--dad's been here 9 months and its now at a 2-3 star instead of 5. Staffing needs to increase to the level of care (Basic vs extended) for the residents they serve.They had a change in the DON in either June or July. We've installed a camera (this is allowed) in dad's room to monitor the activity and I've asked for camera in the common rooms to monitor residents when they are alone (often in the evening when the staff is assisting other residents; the other night there were 8 residents in the TV room with no staff around). They need to increase the staffing so residents can be showered as promised, have their dental care morning and evening (takes 6 minutes for my dad to brush his teeth, wash his hands, and wash his face), toileted, etc. Fortunately, my dad is now with Hospice Austin which has increased the number of hours someone is caring for him. Increasing the pay for their direct caregivers would go far too. These men and women do a terrific job and should be compensated for it. Adding even $5/hour to their paycheck would do wonders.